The Runners
by Todd's Pet
Summary: A wraith and his human pay the ultimate price for their love - can they keep each other alive long enough to find sanctuary in a place that will accept them for what they are?


The Runners

The pain is unbelievable. He is used to healing almost immediately; the drugs they gave him suppress the healing – so they have time to insert the tracking device into his spine – but not the pain. He grits his teeth, determined not to make a sound and show himself up. He is still wraith no matter what his own species is doing to him now.

He turns his head the other way and looks at her. She is clenching her teeth hard against the pain of the same procedure and, although her eyes are squeezed shut, tears still find their way through her eyelashes and run down her face. She, too, is determined not to make a sound. He knows how much more fragile and easily hurt she is and her strength of character impresses him for the millionth time since he's known her.

But nevertheless the distress of seeing her like this and knowing the fate he has sealed for her is far worse than that of their surgical instruments.

oOo

The very first time he saw her he knew there was something different about her. She stood with her head held high and didn't radiate fear like the other humans.

His Commander walked down the line of females, choosing those he wanted as playthings – it was not a fate any of the women wished upon themselves and one or two of the "chosen few" started to cry as they were taken aside.

Fortunately for both of them, the Commander didn't choose her. As Second he was allowed first choice from the Commander's leftovers. He only wanted her. He took her arm as he passed down the line and led her off, leaving the rest for the Third and Fourth to squabble over.

oOo

They sit in the cell waiting for his Commander to come and pass judgement, although they already know their fate. They sit in silence, words completely unnecessary; they both know how they come to be here, together, sharing a fate that they know can have only one inescapable outcome for them both: death.

He reaches out and takes her hand and this small, silent action reaffirms for them both that they will somehow find the strength from each other to face whatever comes.

oOo

In the early days she'd been stubborn and sullen, as uncooperative as she could be with a wraith without risking instant death.

But there was something about him that made her relent quicker than she thought she would. She knew from other worshippers on the hive that he treated her kindly – at least for a wraith – and she knew that if she didn't submit to him sooner rather than later he'd have no more excuse to keep her and she'd be taken and given to another wraith.

She wasn't prepared to risk the Third on this hive, who had a reputation for being brutal just for the fun of it. So on the tenth day – the last one before she could be taken from him – she gave in and mated with him. She simply lay still and let him get on with it, but she found herself thinking that it wasn't so bad really.

oOo

His Commander leers at them through the bars of their cell. "In case you haven't already worked it out," he tells them, "You are now runners."

He grabs her chin viciously with his clawed hand and pulls her face hard up against the bars, so close to his own face she can see the mottled patches on his skin. "Has he told you what that means, human?"

She hawks loudly and spits in his face. After all, what more could they do to her that would be any worse than what awaits?

The Commander laughs loudly, giving her a close-up view of his enormous pointed teeth and a face full of his fetid breath.

He pushes her away roughly and she stumbles backwards and falls onto her backside. The wraith in the cell with her steps forward and gently helps her back to her feet.

"Touching," the Commander sneers, turns on his heel and leaves.

oOo

It didn't take long before she found she was responding to him. He was gentle with her and she found that if she played a more active part in their matings then he was more patient with her in other day-to-day matters.

Within a year she even found herself looking forward to his return in the evening, when they would sit and tell each other about their day.

He started to bring her books and allowed her a little time to herself at the end of each day to read them.

And at night, instead of her clinging to the edge of the sleep bay, as far away from him as she could get, they lay wrapped in each other's arms.

oOo

They materialise on a nearby planet and the second their feet touch solid ground they know the clock is ticking. If they are to live they must do so by their wits alone.

"We have two hours before a hunting party come through that gate," he tells her. "We cannot go anywhere through the gate before then."

"Can we set traps?" she asks.

"Precisely what I was thinking." He smiles in spite of their predicament. They have almost started to think as one. "If we can incapacitate the first wave then at least we'll have weapons."

"And then we can dial the gate and find somewhere where it's easier to hide."

"Exactly."

oOo

She'd been lying awake in the middle of the night, as she often did, watching him sleep and struggling with her feelings. They had been together for many years by then, so surely it was understandable that she would feel some kind of affection for him?

He'd turned in his sleep, wakened and looked up at her through the gloom of the night. "What are you thinking?" he asked her.

When she didn't answer he sat up and swung his legs around so he could face her. A single tear had run down her face, leaving a shiny track on her cheek. "What's wrong?" he said, troubled.

"You're concerned about me?" she asked.

"Of course I'm concerned," he replied, tracing the damp track on her cheek with his thumb.

"My feelings matter to you?"

"Your feelings matter to me very much," he said softly, moving to hold her close to him. "Because I love you."

She let both his arms and his words wrap her in deep warmth and no longer felt the chill of the night.

oOo

Somehow they manage to overcome and kill five wraith between them and they now have two warm wraith coats as well as several weapons. But time is not on their side and they must get through the gate before the next wave of hunters.

"Not that I'm complaining," he ventures, "But I was surprised at how quickly you dispatched those two."

"Didn't think I had it in me, you mean?" He shrugs and she says, "I hate them."

He finishes stripping the dead wraith of their weapons and hands her three stun guns. She takes them from him, stashes them in the coat she took from the shortest of them, puts it on and fastens it. It fits well.

"Not because they're wraith," she adds, "but because of what they've done to us."

Part of him likes her use of the word 'us' but part of him wishes there'd never been any 'us'. _From now on it's us against the rest of the galaxy_, he thinks to himself as they run through the star gate hoping to evade the hunters and live another day.

oOo

She'd been his worshipper for more than a century and he'd given her the gift several times. He knew it was done, even on his hive, and he could think of no other reason why his brothers would do likewise with their worshippers, other than that they felt the same way he did. Why did no one talk about it? Why did he feel like the only wraith to have ever fallen in love with a human?

oOo

They avoid heavily populated planets, knowing that the presence of hunters will only put the lives of the locals in jeopardy. At first their tactic of going to places with the kind of extremes of temperature that wraith hate buys them a little more time between waves of hunters, but it's hard on them too.

They must seek out humans occasionally, for he has to feed every now and then – sometimes enough for both of them, if food is scarce and he has to give her some of his own life force to keep her going.

They must be choosey about who they approach, since his merely being wraith puts them both in danger. But a wraith and a human on the run together make many curious and, when they hear their story, often sympathetic. They collect much advice as well as supplies along the way.

oOo

They were dragged from their room in the middle of the night and thrown in front of the hive Queen. Neither knew what it was they had done. He could sense her fear and wished there was something he could do to protect her.

"Do you love this... this creature?" the Queen demanded. He remained silent. "You were overheard telling it so!"

He brazenly looked the Queen in the eye and said, "She is not an 'it' and, yes, I love her."

"Deny it or die!"

"I will not deny her."

She didn't need telepathy to know he was afraid. She vowed at that moment that she would never deny him either.

oOo

"We could try to find Atlantis," he says. "That inn-keeper told me it still exists and they can make me human."

"No, I won't let you do that."

"But if they can remove the trackers from us too, it could be the end of running."

"It also means you would forget everything, who you are, where you come from..."

"I would do that for you..." he says softly, "I would give up being wraith if it meant we could be together."

"And what would be the point of us being together if you can't remember ever loving me?"

He sighs deeply. In a sudden fit of depression he wonders if it would be easier to make some kind of suicide pact, get it over with, peacefully and together. But she looks up at him, her blue eyes sparkling fiercely in the dark and he knows they both have too strong an instinct for survival.

It is their fate after all, to spend what little time they have left on the run together, protecting each other for as long as they can until the bitter end.

They huddle together near the mouth of the cave to keep out of the rain. They hope the storm will keep the hunters away, but they agree to take turns keeping watch just the same.

oOo

"Give him up," the Commander told her coldly. "Surely becoming the worshipper of another wraith is worth it to keep on living?"

She held her head high and remained silent. In spite of her wraith's repeated pleading with her to deny him, she refused to disassociate herself from him and give him up.

"If you do not deny him you will become a runner with him," the Commander reminded her of the bleak future she was about to bring upon herself.

She boldly looked the Commander straight in the eye. "Then I will spend whatever days remain to me as a runner with him."

oOo

They're cold and wet and hungry when they find the village. Several women run out to greet them and lead them into a cottage with a roaring fire in the hearth.

They bring warm towels and dry clothes and put a bowl of steaming hot stew in front of her. She eats hungrily for a few seconds, stops and looks across the table at her wraith then up at the women standing around them.

"I know," the eldest of the group of women says kindly, "he is hungry too."

She steps closer to him and he stumbles backwards, "No! You've helped us – I cannot feed on you!"

She smiles and says, "Trust me. I can feed you and no harm will come to me." The other women move to form a circle around her and a dim blue light begins to glow from her. As the light intensifies she looks straight at him and tells him, "Take as much as you need."

He stands shaking his head, torn between the hunger burning deep within him and not wanting to harm any of these women.

One of them pushes him gently forward, takes his feeding hand and forcibly puts it flat on the chest of the elder, now glowing with an almost blindingly bright blue light. Still he refuses to feed until the woman behind him says, "It's alright. Take it."

He squeezes his eyes shut and starts to feed voraciously.

oOo

"You must deny me!" he pleaded with her, hoping even at this late stage to prevent her from throwing her life away on him.

"No! No matter what you say, I won't abandon you." She took his face in her hands and kissed his lips, "Don't you understand?" she told him, "I love you too."

His despair melted away in her arms then and they'd clung together in the cell, knowing that, whatever fate awaited them, they would face it together.

oOo

"How can you do this?" he asks incredulously.

"We're all healers in one form or another, and you may have noticed our village is all women. We have several alternative ways of feeding wraith that does not result in our death."

"You come across wraith often, then?" she asks them. She and her wraith sit together by the hearth, both warm and dry and well fed.

The elder laughs softly. "We have a hive in permanent orbit," she tells them. "We feed them and they protect us," she explains, "Over time many of us have grown very close to some of them." She turns and smiles at two of the younger women who blush at her words.

"Close?" she asks, "As in...?"

"Yes, like you two."

Suddenly, the wraith sees something through the window and leaps to his feet. "Wraith!" he snarls, "If the hunters find us here they will kill you too!"

The village elder puts her hand on his arm. "There is no need for alarm. These are not hunters, nor will any hunters be able to reach our village."

The women welcome the group of wraith warmly and the one who is clearly the Commander greets the elder woman with obvious affection before he turns to address the runners.

"I sense that you have come a long way and been through much together," he says. "We will remove the trackers; your days as fugitives are over."

They look at each other and reach for each other's hands. "We'll be safe here?" he asks.

"We can be together openly?" she adds.

The Commander smiles broadly and envelopes them both in a bear hug, "Welcome home!" he tells them.

THE END


End file.
